S. Fred Singer

{{#badges: Climate change |tobaccowiki}} {{#badges: CoalSwarm}} Siegfried Frederick Singer (S. Fred Singer), a former space scientist and government scientific administrator, runs the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), which publicizes his own views on various topics, primarily climate change, ozone depletion, risks of chemical pollution (from DDT and others), nuclear power, and space policy.

Profiles

Singer was born September 27, 1924, in Vienna, Austria. Singer received a B.E.E. from Ohio State University in 1943 and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1948.

In the early 1990s, Singer's then wife, Candace Carolyn Crandall, was Executive Vice President of SEPP and is currently a Research Associate of SEPP.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute listed Singer as "expert" on their website until September 2007. He is now listed on their website as someone who can be booked as a speaker.

Affiliations

• 1989- Director and President, Science and Environmental Policy Project, a foundation-funded, independent research group, incorporated in 1992, to advance environment and health policies through sound science. SEPP is a non-profit, education organization.
• 1993- Member of the board of the International Center for a Scientific Ecology.
• 1994- Distinguished Research Professor, Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
• 2002 Advisory Board Member, American Council on Science and Health
• Editorial Advisory Board, The Cato Institute
• Adjunct Scholar, National Center for Policy Analysis
• Adjunct Fellow, Frontiers of Freedom
• 2006- Member of the Science Advisory Committee for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project.
• Heartland Institute Global Warming Expert

It should be noted that, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, October 26, 2006

• The Cato Institute received $55,000 from ExxonMobil in 2002-2003.
• The National Center for Policy Analysis received $105,000 from ExxonMobil in 2002-2003.
• The Frontiers of Freedom organizations received $282,000 from ExxonMobil in 2002-2003.
• The American Council on Science and Health received $35,000 from ExxonMobil in 2002-2003.

Climate Change "Expert"

In the early 1990s, while officially "on leave" from the University of Virginia, Singer set up the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy with the help of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution and with funding support from the Unification Church (also known as "Moonies," followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church).

This organisation worked closely with Elizabeth Whelan and Frederick Stare's American Council on Science and Health in countering climate activism as it related to the chemical industry. Later Singer's organisation changed into the Science and Environmental Policy Project with funding from the coal and oil industries and some support from PR firm APCO & Associates.

SEPP, in turn, sloughed off a European branch named International Center for a Scientific Ecology (ICSE), in Paris, which was run by science journalist and SEPP associate Michel Salomon Along with Steve Milloy at The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) and Roger Bate at the European Science and Environment Forum (ESEF) (a sort of European version of TASSC) these organisations all pushed the climate-denier and "junk science" lines on behalf of large corporate interest groups.

Salomon was a member of the Board of Science Advisors of SEPP and with Singer, he organised the Heidelberg conference which resulted in the infamous Heidelberg Appeal document. The legitimate scientists who signed this appeal intended it to be a request for governments to heed the opinion of scientists before engaging in the wholesale removal of asbestos fibers from schools and other buildings, since in many cases it was safer to leave it in situ with resin bonding. However it was drafted by Salomon and Singer in very general terms.

In these general terms, it appeared to be an attack on climate activism. It was later used in a conference of climate-deniers at the George Mason University in Washington, D.C. to promote U.S. support. The ICSE, SEPP, TASSC and ESEF also promoted the Heidelberg Appeal at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit as evidence of worldwide scientific opposition to the conference's consensus decision that governments needed to take urgent action on climate change.

The Heidelberg Appeal document was funded, circulated and promoted by the asbestos industry and the tobacco industry, but the ICSE organisation was also supported by the vinyl and chemical industries.

The National Center for Public Policy Research lists Singer as someone that journalists can interview on climate change policy.

Professor Ian Enting records a contradiction in Singer's stance: "Singer’s book (with John Avery), Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years proposes a natural 1500 year cycle for global temperature. I find this unconvincing, with no evidence provided for the claim that Imperial Roman times were as cold as the Little Ice Age 1500 years later. I am also puzzled as to how a man who claims we are in a natural warming cycle until about 2300 could be part of the Heartland Institute group. which convinced Senator Steve Fielding that the Earth is cooling."

In 2012, Singer began to criticize certain specific categories of deniers of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), writing that they were "giving us skeptics a bad name". In particular, Singer strongly criticized those who have claimed that (a) the greenhouse effect violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, (b) that rising carbon dioxide levels do not cause temperatures to rise, (c) that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is too small to have an effect, (d) that natural variations in carbon dioxide dwarf human contributions, and (e) that the observed rise in carbon dioxide is due to volcanic eruptions. Singer continues to question whether AGW has actually occurred, but he has apparently lost patience with many AGW deniers.

Tobacco Industry Contractor

In 1993, Singer collaborated with Tom Hockaday of Apco Associates to draft an article on "junk science" intended for publication. Apco Associates was the PR firm hired to organize and direct The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition for Philip Morris. Hockaday reported on his work with Singer to Ellen Merlo, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris.

In 1994, Singer was Chief Reviewer of the report Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI). This was all part of an attack on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded by the Tobacco Institute over a risk assessment on environmental tobacco smoke. At that time, Mr. Singer was a Senior Fellow with AdTI.

"The report's principal reviewer, Dr. Fred Singer, was involved with the International Center for a Scientific Ecology, a group that was considered important in Philip Morris' plans to create a group in Europe similar to The Advancement for Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), as discussed by Ong and Glantz. He was also on a tobacco industry list of people who could write op-ed pieces on "junk science," defending the industry's views.39"

In 1995, as President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (a think tank based in Fairfax, Virginia) S. Fred Singer was involved in launching a publicity campaign about "The Top Five Environmental Myths of 1995," a list that included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that secondhand tobacco smoke is a human carcinogen. Shandwick, a public relations agency working for British American Tobacco, pitched the "Top Five Myths" list idea to Singer to minimize the appearance of tobacco industry involvement in orchestrating criticism of the EPA. The "Top Five Environmental Myths" list packaged EPA's secondhand smoke ruling with other topics like global warming and radon gas, to help minimize the appearance of tobacco industry involvement in the effort. According to a 1996 BAT memo describing the arrangement, Singer agreed to an "aggressive media interview schedule" organized by Shandwick to help publicize his criticism of EPA's conclusions.

Oil Industry Contractor

In a September 24, 1993, sworn affidavit, Dr. Singer stated that he had two meetings with Robert Balling in Pheonix for which his expenses were re-imbursed. Singer believed the the funding, which he received from Balling, originated from the Western Fuels Association. Singer also admitted to working as a consultant on approximately half a dozen occasions for the Global Climate Coalition and that payments to him came either from the firm of John Shlaes, the coalition's director or the PR firm, E. Bruce Harrison, which worked for the coalition. He also stated that he had undertaken consulting work on "perhaps a dozen or so" energy companies. This included work on behalf of oil companies, such as Exxon, Texaco, Arco, Shell, Sun, Unocal, the Electric Power Research Institute, Florida Power and the American Gas Association.

In February 2001, Ronald Collins from the Center for Science in the Public Interest chided a Washington Post for citing Singer but not disclosing his consulting work. "Although The Post's readers were told of some of Mr. Singer's more impressive credentials, they were not informed that he has served as a consultant to Exxon, Shell, Unocal, Sun Oil, ARCO, Ford and GM. All of those companies, of course, have vested interests in fighting off reductions of carbon dioxide emissions. At a time when industry is buying greater influence in the scientific community, it is essential for the press to provide full disclosure," Collins wrote.

However, on February 12, 2001, Singer wrote a letter to The Washington Post in which he denied receiving any oil company money in the previous 20 years when he had consulted for the oil industry. " As for full disclosure: My resume clearly states that I consulted for several oil companies on the subject of oil pricing, some 20 years ago, after publishing a monograph on the subject. My connection to oil during the past decade is as a Wesson Fellow at the Hoover Institution; the Wesson money derives from salad oil."

Singer Profiled in Rolling Stone Magazine

In the January 2010 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, journalist Tim Dickinson profiled the top 17 United States "polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming". Below is an excerpt from the article titled "Climate Killers" about Fred Singer.

A former mouthpiece for the tobacco industry, the 85-year-old Singer is the granddaddy of fake "science" designed to debunk global warming. The retired physicist — who also tried to downplay the danger of the hole in the ozone layer — is still wheeled out as an authority by big polluters determined to kill climate legislation. For years, Singer steadfastly denied that the world is heating up: Citing satellite data that has since been discredited, he even made the unhinged claim that "the climate has been cooling just slightly." Last year, Singer served as a lead author of "Climate Change Reconsidered" — an 880-page report by the right-wing Heartland Institute that was laughably presented as a counterweight to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's scientific authority on global warming. Singer concludes that the unchecked growth of climate-cooking pollution is "unequivocally good news." Why? Because "rising CO2 levels increase plant growth and make plants more resistant to drought and pests." Small wonder that Heartland's climate work has long been funded by the likes of Exxon and reactionary energy barons like Charles Koch and Richard Mellon Scaife.

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• AdTI-Funding
• climate change sceptics
• Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination

External articles

Profiles

• Wikipedia article.
• "S. Fred Singer, Ph.D., Professional Background," Science and Environmental Policy Project.
• "Distinguished Alumnus Awards," Ohio State University.

Published Works by S. Fred Singer

• "Physics of the Moon" (AAS/AAAS Symposium), December 29, 1966, Washington, D. C., Univelt, Incorporated, 1967, 260pp, ISBN 0877030413.
• "Voyage to the Planets, 5th Goddard Memorial Symposium, Mar. 14-15, 1967, Washington, D. C (Science & Technology Ser)", Univelt, December 1, 1968, ISBN 0877030448
• "Global Effects of Environmental Pollution," Proceedings of AAAS Symposium, Dallas, TX, 1968, Reidel, June 1970, ISBN 9027701512.
• "Manned Laboratories in Space," Reidel, July 1969, ISBN 9027701407.
• "Is There an Optimum Level of Population?" (from 1969 AAAS Symposium of same title), A Population Council Book, McGraw-Hill, 1971, ISBN 0070574715.
• "The Changing Global Environment," Reidel, March 1, 1975, ISBN 9027704023.
• With Yair Mundlak, "Arid zone development, potentialities and problems: the proceedings of a symposium", Ballinger, 1977, ISBN 0884100502
• "Economic Effects of Demographic Changes", Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, 1977.
• "Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Decisionmaking", MITRE Corporation, 1979.
• Singer et al., "Energy, Readings from Scientific American," W.H. Freeman, 1979, ISBN 071671082X.
• "The Price of World Oil", Annual Reviews of Energy, Vol. 8, pp.451-508, 1983, doi:10.1146/annurev.eg.08.110183.002315.
• "Free Market Energy: The Way to Benefit Consumers," Universe Books, May 1984, ISBN 0876634439.
• "Oil Policy in a Changing Market", Annual Reviews of Energy, Vol. 12, 1987.
• "Global Climate Change: Human and Natural Influences," International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), distributed by Paragon House, June 1989, ISBN 0892260718.
• "The Ocean in Human Affairs," ICUS/Paragon House, March 1990, ISBN 0892260378.
• "The Universe and Its Origin: From Ancient Myths to Present Reality and Future Fantasy," ICUS/Paragon House, May 1, 1990, ISBN 0892260491.
• "The Greenhouse Debate Continued: An Analysis and Critique of the IPCC Climate Assessment," ICS Press, 1992, ISBN 1558152334.
• "Whither Environmental Regulation?" Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, July 31, 1995?
• "Evolving Global Environment," Paragon House, May 1993, ISBN 0892260467.
• With W. Thüne, F. Seitz, Helmut Metzner, Treibhaus-Kontroverse und Ozon-Problem: Symposium der Europäischen Akademie für Umweltfragen Leipzig 9.-10. November 1995, Böttiger, 1996, ISBN 3925725296. Title translation: The Greenhouse Controversy and the Ozone Problem: Symposium of the European Academy for Environmental Affairs, Leipzig Nov.9-10, 1995.
• "The Scientific Case Against the Global Climate Treaty", SEPP, 1997.
• With Frederick Seitz, "Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate," The Independent Institute, December 1, 1998, ISBN 094599978X.
• "Climate Policy--From Rio to Kyoto: A Political Issue for 2000--And Beyond (Essays in Public Policy, No. 102)," Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, July 1, 2000, ISBN 0817943722.
• "EPA Bias on Global Warming," SEPP, July 29, 2003.
• "McLieberman Bill Unsupported By Science: Voted Down by Senate," Letter to Wall Street Journal (SEPP), October 31, 2003.
• "Old Security Myths," Washington Times (SEPP), November 28, 2003.
• "Oil Security Concerns Need to be Addressed Realistically," SEPP, June 21, 2004.
• "The Kyoto Protocol: A Post-Mortem," The New Atlantis, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp. 66-73 (SEPP).
• "Global Warming and US Politics," Remarks by S. Fred Singer at the Emerging Issues Forum of the Heartland Institute, Chicago, September 23, 2004.
• "Bush-Bashing over Kyoto," Letter to Financial Times submitted December 10, 2004.
• "Kyoto Protocol Danger to the White House," SEPP, February 19, 2005.
• "Some Straight Thinking About G-8 and Climate Change," SEPP, July 5, 2005.
• "Energy Imbalance and Ocean Heat Storage: No Proof of AGW," SEPP, August 5, 2005.
• With D.H. Douglas, "Climate Data Disagree with Climate Models: Policy Dilemma: Should We Believe in Atmosphere or in Models?", AGU meeting December 5-9, 2005 (SEPP).
• "Comments on NAS Committee Hearings on Hockeystick," University of Virginia (SEPP), March 2-3, 2006.
• "A Critique of IPCC-FAR (4th Assessment Report 2007)" (based on the April 2006 draft of the Summary for Policymakers"), SEPP, June 10, 2006.
• "A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions" with David H. Douglass, John R. Christy, Benjamin D. Pearson. 11 October 2007.
• S. Fred Singer, "No Evidence for AGW: A Personal Odyssey", Presentation to the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change (2009), March 10, 2009. (Play Video) (Download Video) (PowerPoint)

Articles & Commentary

• Kent Jeffreys, "Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: a Critical Examination," Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, August 11, 1994.
• "ExxonMobil Emerges as Major Funder of 'GREENHOUSE SKEPTICS'," Kwikpower International, 2001(?).
• "Prominent Skeptics Organizations," Union of Concerned Scientists, May 1, 2003.
• Derek Yach and Stella Aguinaga Bialous, "Tobacco, Lawyers, and Public Health," American Journal of Public Health, November 2001.
• Stephen Goode, "Picture Profile, Singer Cool on Global Warming," Insight on the News, April 21, 2004.
• Tim Lambert, "Singer and Michaels pronounce global warming dead," Deltoid (ScienceBlogs.com), August 17, 2004.
• "Global Warming Skeptics: A Primer. Guess Who's Funding the Global Warming Doubt Shops?" Environmental Defense, October 25, 2005.
• Louise Gray, "Fred Singer to speak at climate change sceptics conference: Climate change sceptics are fighting back in the run up to the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen with a series of talks and conferences", Telegraph.co.ok, November 18, 2009.
• Sandi Keane, Fred Singer and the non-conserving neo-conservatives, Independent Australia, 28 May, 2011.

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